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Web Security

14 courses 3 categories

Web security covers the offensive and defensive work of keeping applications, infrastructure, and the humans operating them out of trouble. The topic spans three overlapping skill sets: application security (finding and fixing vulnerabilities in code), penetration testing (simulating an attacker against running systems), and the broader IT security discipline that includes network defense, identity, and incident response.

The threats in 2026 are no longer mysterious. The OWASP Top 10 still describes the categories that account for most real breaches: broken access control, cryptographic failures, injection, insecure design, security misconfiguration, vulnerable components, identification and authentication failures, software and data integrity failures, logging gaps, and SSRF. On top of that sit modern concerns — supply-chain attacks via npm and PyPI, prompt-injection in LLM-powered features, OAuth token theft, and credential-stuffing at industrial scale. The tools have matured: Burp Suite for hands-on testing, OWASP ZAP for automation, Nuclei for template-based scanning, Semgrep for SAST, and the cloud-native posture-management tools for everything else.

What you'll find under this topic

  • OWASP Top 10: hands-on labs for each category, with real exploits and fixes
  • Web pentesting: Burp Suite, recon, parameter tampering, auth bypass
  • Ethical hacking certifications: OSCP, CEH, eJPT, PNPT prep tracks
  • Network security: nmap, Wireshark, TLS, firewalls, segmentation
  • Cloud and container security: IAM, KMS, secrets management, supply-chain attacks
  • Application security in code: input validation, CSRF, SSRF, deserialization
  • Incident response and forensics: log analysis, IOCs, containment

Security roles exist at every organization that processes anything sensitive — banks, telecoms, healthtech, e-commerce, government. The career split runs between offensive (red team, pentest consulting, bug bounty), defensive (blue team, SOC, detection engineering), and product (application security engineers embedded in product teams). Compensation tracks with senior engineering at most of these companies.

Top 10 picks for 2026

Categories (3)

Ethical Hacking / Penetration Testing thumbnail
Ethical Hacking / Penetration Testing
Ethical Hacking / Penetration Testing involves the authorized practice of bypassing system security to identify…
IT security thumbnail
IT security
IT security encompasses the practical aspects of cybersecurity, focusing on techniques and practices crucial for…
Web Security & Pentesting thumbnail
Web Security & Pentesting
Web Security & Pentesting involves identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities in web applications and APIs to ensure…

Courses (14)

Showing 1 – 14 of 14 courses

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Frequently asked questions

Is web security a good career path?
Yes — application security, product security, and offensive security roles are well-paid and chronically understaffed. The discipline rewards a curious adversarial mindset more than a specific credential. Many strong AppSec engineers came from regular software engineering and shifted laterally; that path remains open in 2026 with the demand still outpacing supply.
What's the difference between AppSec and DevSecOps?
AppSec focuses on application-layer security — threat modelling, secure code review, fixing classes of vulnerability, working with engineering teams on safe defaults. DevSecOps overlaps with platform engineering — integrating security tooling into CI/CD, SAST/DAST/SCA pipelines, secrets management, supply chain. Many roles blend both; AppSec is closer to product work, DevSecOps closer to infrastructure.
Do I need to know how to hack to do web security?
At minimum you need to think like an attacker — read OWASP Top 10 deeply, do CTFs or HackTheBox boxes, work through PortSwigger Web Security Academy. Real exploit-development skills are required for offensive security and pentesting; for defensive AppSec you need solid attacker literacy without being a pentester yourself. Both paths are valuable.
What are the highest-impact web vulnerabilities to learn?
Injection (SQL, command, NoSQL), XSS, CSRF, SSRF, broken authentication and session management, IDOR/authorization flaws, SSRF, deserialization, and dependency vulnerabilities. Newer additions: prompt injection in LLM apps, supply-chain attacks via compromised packages. OWASP Top 10 plus the API Security Top 10 cover most of what defensive engineers see in real incidents.
How long to become hireable in AppSec?
12–24 months from a software engineering baseline; longer from a cold start. Plan on solid software engineering first, then add adversarial training (PortSwigger Academy, OWASP material, CTFs), at least one bug-bounty program or open-source security contribution, and depth in one area (web auth, cryptography, supply chain). Security generalists struggle; specialists with depth get hired.